President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday he has picked TV’s Dr. Oz to run the sprawling Medicare and Medicaid programs.
As administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Oz will lead the federal health programs that provide those services to tens of millions of retirees, children and poor people, or about half of all Americans, Trump said.
The incoming president said Oz, a famed heart surgeon, will be tasked with working alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the vaccine skeptic whom Trump has nominated to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services.
“There may be no physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again,” Trump said in a statement posted on social media. “He will take on the illness industrial complex and all the horrible chronic diseases in its wake.”
Oz, who’s an immigrant from Turkey and holds dual citizenship, narrowly lost a 2022 pro-Trump bid for Senate to Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania).
He’s the latest in a string of telegenic nominations from Trump, who has already tapped Fox News weekend host Pete Hegseth to run the Department of Defense and Fox Business host Sean Duffy as Secretary of Transportation.
Oz, who has no government experience, will be charged with overseeing an agency that accounts for about a quarter of all federal spending.
Trump said Oz would need to slash costs, especially after Elon Musk has threatened to cut about $2 trillion in annual federal spending as head of a newly created Department of Government Efficiency.
The position requires Senate confirmation but Oz is likely to face less opposition than controversial picks like RFK Jr., Hegseth and ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz, whose nomination as attorney general has drawn heavy criticism as he’s facing allegations that he paid underage girls for sex during drug-fueled parties and luxury vacations.
“He will also cut waste and fraud within our nation’s most expensive agency,” Trump said of Oz.
